


It's Complicated

by DoctorLazarus



Category: PJ Masks (Cartoon)
Genre: Comedy, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Slice of Life, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:07:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25401346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorLazarus/pseuds/DoctorLazarus
Summary: How do you deal with the fact that your enemy's interested in you romantically?A slice-of-life (well, as much a slice-of-life a story involving superheroes can be) about the various encounters Greg has with Night Ninja.
Relationships: Greg/Night Ninja (PJ Masks)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

“Really? Nothing?” Owlette asked.

PJ Robot gave a few beeps as an affirmative.

“Huh. That’s odd.” Catboy stepped up to the computer and tapped a few buttons. “We’ve been doing this PJ Masks work for years and this is the first time none of the villains are out.”

“You don’t think Armadylan took care of them, did you?” Gekko asked.

Catboy scratched his chin. “I think we should search the city just to be sure. Owlette, take the Glider and be our eye in the sky. Gekko, you take the eastern half of the city. I’ll explore the western half.”

“Got it.”

All three superheroes hopped into their respective vehicles and set off, splitting in three directions as they exited the totem pole that served as their HQ. Gekko headed down the main avenue, reasoning he’d be able to see better if there were any threats about if he was in an open area.

“See anything?” Catboy’s voice came over the radio.

“Negative.” said Owlette.

“Nothing here, either.” Gekko replied. “Maybe they’ve decided to take a break?”

“Yeah, right – fat chance. You know those nighttime villains love to harass the city like it’s their damn job or something. The day they’re not up to something is the day I’ll eat my hat.”

Greg rolled his eyes at that speech. Over the years, Greg had noticed Connor seemed to have become a lot more cynical. He wasn’t sure if it was just a natural result of growing up or that years of superhero work had worn him down, but his Latino friend now tended to expect the worst out of every situation, see the negative in everyone. In fact, he had started to spend less time with him because his negativity kind of ruined the vibe on everything they do.

Amaya had changed less personality-wise compared to Connor, but lately she’d been focusing on her studies, trying to obtain good grades and get into a prestigious college, the end result being that she was often too busy to hang out. When she had first told the others, Connor had all but laughed in her face.

“Ha!” He said. “College? We’re barely through our second year of high school.”

That had annoyed Amaya and she stormed off. Thankfully that night Catboy apologised and they remained friends, but aside from their nightly hero duty, the PJ masks tended not to see each other nearly as often.

Owlette’s voice over the radio snapped Gekko out of his thoughts. “Catboy, I’m going to continue the scouting on foot. I’m not wasting my time flying in circles in the Glider.”

“Sure, sure. Whatever floats your boat.”

There was a few seconds of static before a message popped up on the dashboard informing him that the connection to the Owl Glider was lost, which Gekko took to mean Owlette had landed and turned off her aircraft.

“Catboy,” Gekko started, “Perhaps we should just call it a night.”

“Not you too. What if all of them are holding a secret meeting somewhere, plotting to take us out? Maybe they’re hiding and waiting for us to let our guard down right now.”

“We can beat them if they do. But I think you’re being paranoid.”

“Paranoid! It’s not paranoia if the concern is justified.”

“Shouldn’t you be able to hear them coming with your cat ears, then?” Gekko pointed out.

“I’m in a car. The engine’s loud.”

Gekko gave up; there seemed to be no convincing him. Half-heartedly the green superhero turned down a street before immediately slamming on the brakes; there were a bunch of stones scattered on the road.

“What the-?” Getting out of the car, Gekko took a few glances around before mentally scolding himself; Catboy’s paranoia had apparently rubbed off on him. The mess was probably just the result of somebody knocking them over accidentally.

Gekko grabbed one of the stones to investigate; black rubbed off onto his hand. Not stone, apparently, but coal.

“Why is there a bunch of coal on the road?” Gekko wondered, when some noise caught his attention. Quick as a flash the lizard activated his wall-climbing ability and crawled up the nearest building to the roof. Snapping his fingers to activate the camouflage on his car, the lizard placed his ear to the concrete to eavesdrop on anyone below.

“How do you manage to drop so much coal on the road?”

Gekko stiffened. He’d recognise that voice anywhere. Night Ninja.

A muffled voice followed, which Gekko presumed to be one of the Ninjalinos.

“I gave you a wheelbarrow for that exact reason.”

Again, a muffled something that Gekko couldn’t understand.

“If you stack them properly then they won’t roll off! You know what, whatever. Just pick them up and let’s finish the job.”

Gekko didn’t like the sound of that; it sounded ominous. Hearing the sound of footsteps walking away, he opted to carefully stick his head out to observe. Just as he suspected, he saw a figure that he recognised immediately as Night Ninja – his starry blue costume was unmistakable – along with one of his minions pushing a wheelbarrow filled with the coal that was on the road a few minutes ago.

Keeping quiet Gekko followed them along the rooftops. Night Ninja and co walked along the streets, the rumbling of the wheelbarrow being pushed making enough noise that Gekko didn’t have to worry about them overhearing him.

The duo crossed a junction and stopped in front of a dilapidated building, whereupon Night Ninja pushed open the door and headed inside, the Ninjalino following. Gekko frowned; this was getting shadier by the minute. Hopping down and hurrying across the road himself Gekko peered at the sign on the front, unfortunately it was too faded to make out. The green hero raised an eyebrow. Whatever this place used to be, he doubted that the villain was planning to renovate and start a business. Heading in after them Gekko stuck to the walls, reasoning that the darkness would be enough cover to keep him hidden.

Night Ninja and his Ninjalino stopped in front of a second door and stepped through. Gekko took a minute to study the building; there were a variety of discarded exercise machines and treadmills. A broken water fountain was in a corner, and there was also a rack stacked with dumbbells. Looks like this used to be a gym.

Gekko walked over to the door the two villains disappeared through. Unlike the external one, this door had a window and Gekko peered in. The room was made of wood and lined with benches – a sauna, Gekko realised. The two fiends were talking, but the green hero was unable to make out what either were saying.

Night Ninja pointed at one of the corners and the Ninjalino grabbed a few coals from the wheelbarrow. As the corner was right behind the door Gekko couldn’t see what was happening, but a few moments later steam started wafting out from said corner and Night Ninja nodded approvingly before ushering the Ninjalino out – Gekko barely had time to duck behind a wall to avoid being spotted.

The Ninjalino muttered something, shook his fist and headed out the gym. Gekko peered back into the sauna room. Was Night Ninja really just here for some R&R?

The villain was in the middle of undressing. Blushing, Gekko quickly averted his gaze. Apparently he was. Deciding that there was nothing else for him to do the lizard headed out the gym and to his Gekko-mobile where he contacted Catboy.

“Hey Gekko. Anything to report?” His friend’s voice came over the radio.

“Not really, no.”

“What do you mean ‘Not really’?”

“I saw Night Ninja, but he doesn’t seem to be up to anything nefarious.”

“Well, what’s he doing?”

“Having a sauna session, from the looks of it.” Gekko glanced over towards the direction of the gym.

“How do you know it’s actually a sauna session?”

“There was steam and he was in the middle of removing his clothes.” Gekko was losing his patience at how stubborn his friend was being. “I think that’s a pretty good indicator.”

There was silence for a couple seconds before Catboy replied. “Wait, he’s taking off his Night Ninja costume?”

“Yes, what’s the issue?”

“The issue is that this is an opportunity to see who is under that mask and you’re not taking it, Gekko! Go back and see!”

“Excuse me, what? But he’s indecent!”

“You’re just taking a look at his face. Now go on!” With that, the line went dead, which Gekko took to mean “end of discussion”.

“Unbelievable.” The green hero said mostly to himself, before returning to the gym and peeking through the door leading into the sauna room again. To his surprise, the room was empty. “Huh?” Gekko pushed open the door and went inside, whereupon he was grabbed from behind – the villain was apparently hiding just out of view of the door, waiting for him. Gekko cursed himself for being so careless.

“Hello, my little lizard friend. Don’t you know it’s rude to spy on people in the shower?” Night Ninja’s tone made it clear he was being sarcastic.

“Woah, you got it all wrong Night Ninja. We just wanted to find out who you are behind the mask, is all.”

“Well, you’re going to be disappointed.” Night Ninja let go of Gekko and the lizard turned around. The nighttime villain was naked save for his mask.

“Ack! Why are you naked?”

“Sauna, genius.” Night Ninja gestured around him. “When one of my Ninjalinos informed me you were outside perving I didn’t have time to get dressed.”

“I told you, I wasn’t perving.”

Night Ninja smirked. “Sure you weren’t.”

“Why are you having a sauna anyway?” Gekko tried to change the subject.

“There’s no onsen in the city, so I opted for the next best thing. It’s relaxing, you know.” The villain took a step forward and Gekko steeled himself for an attack, only to look in confusion when he felt hands on his shoulders. Night Ninja gave Gekko a few light squeezes, more gentle than painful. “You look tense. Maybe you should join.”

Why was Night Ninja acting so uncharacteristically odd?

As if hearing his thoughts the villain gave another smirk. “It’s only polite to invite. Communal bathing is one of Japan’s many traditions.”

“Saunas aren’t Japanese.” Gekko wasn’t sure was being so antagonistic. Maybe he _was_ tense _._

“I told you, there’s no onsen. It’s close enough.” Night Ninja sat down on the nearest bench, crossing his arms and legs and leaning back casually. “ _Moshiyokereba_.”

“What?”

“Have a seat, if you would like.”

Shrugging, Gekko prepared to sit down but Night Ninja stopped him.

“Hold on. You’re not going to do this in your PJs, can you?”

“Come on Night Ninja, I wasn’t born yesterday. The instant I turn off my superhero costume you’re going to strike, aren’t you?”

“Lizard, I’m hurt. You know it’s considered extremely dishonourable to attack somebody when they’re vulnerable, right? And you know that even though you think of me as a villain, I value honour highly.” The Ninja held up his palms. “Also not to mention, I’m naked. I physically cannot be hiding any weapon.”

Gekko decided not to say aloud the obvious retort. Still, the hero couldn’t really argue with the honour argument, so after a moment’s hesitation he pressed the button on his costume that returned him back to his non-superhero form. Stripping off his pyjamas and then his boxers, the teen discarded his clothes and sat down opposite, making sure to keep a hand on his garments so that the villain wouldn’t have any opportunity to steal them, if that was his plan. He was still not convinced this was just a nice gesture, but the blond wanted to know what his intentions were.

“So Greg,” Night Ninja started. “How’re things going with you and your friends?”

“How did you find out my real name?” Greg tightened his grip on his pyjamas.

Night Ninja rolled his eyes. “I’m a ninja. Espionage is our speciality. If even those fools Romeo and Luna Girl can figure out where you live, what makes you think I can’t? And once I had your address, it becomes trivial to learn your civilian identity.”

“…”

“My Ninjalinos noticed you haven’t been spending as much time with them lately.” Night Ninja said. “Tell me you three losers are breaking up. It’ll make my job much easier.”

“In your dreams. We’re just having some alone time, is all. Nothing says we have to be together every second.”

“Well, that’s annoying. What about when Amaya heads off to college? She’s planning on going to an out-of-town one, yes?”

“Oh, I see. This whole thing is just you trying to find out when would be a good time to do your dirty deeds, isn’t it?”

The Ninja shrugged. “Alright, you got me. Guilty. Can you blame me, though?”

“Don’t you ever get tired of villainy?” Greg decided to turn this interrogation around and question him instead. “Every time you try to steal something, we stop you and you run away with your metaphorical tail between your legs.”

“My lifelong dream is to become the greatest ninja there ever was, so no.”

“Well, then we’re not going to stop fighting you.”

“Get a life.”

“ _You_ get a life.”

Night Ninja reached over and picked up a bucket full of water; Greg in response grabbed his PJs in preparation to put them on expecting this was where things escalated, but to his surprise the villain simply turned the bucket over the coals. The water upon hitting the hot surface immediately turned to steam, filling the air with pale white.

“Calm your butt, lizard. I’m just adding some humidity.”

Greg slowly let go of his costume, still on edge. If the villain _was_ planning anything, he sure can maintain a good poker face. Luckily the tension in the air faded when a knock on the door caught their attention. Night Ninja groaned and got up. “Ugh. Those Ninjalinos. Can’t they do _anything_ by themselves?” Greg looked over to see their conversation, making sure to keep his gaze well away from the villain's behind.

Throwing open the door the villain looked out and barked, “What?”

Two Ninjalinos were standing outside. The one on the right said something.

“Well, how am I supposed to know? Go look it up.”

The left one pointed at a piece of paper he was holding.

“Well then, go and make a sandwich instead!” With that, Night Ninja slammed the door shut, sighing and sitting down. “Goddammit. This is why I need this sauna; I swear they’re going to be the life of me.”

“Minion issue?”

“They're trying bake a cake. I don’t want to know why.”

“How do they even eat?” Gekko wondered.

“They take their masks off first, duh.”

“I always assumed they were robots or something.”

“Of course they’re not robots. You’ve met Romeo, and you know how his crappy robots always backfire on him. No, I went with a much more sensible path. I went with...” Night Ninja paused. “Oh-ho. Almost got me there, little lizard. I'm not telling you the secret of the Ninjalinos.”

“We’ll figure it out eventually.”

Night Ninja gave a laugh. “It’s been 8 years since you took on this hero work and you can't figure out who _I_ am.”

“A robot?”

“Course not!” Night Ninja pointed a thumb at his torso. “You can plainly see I'm not a robot.”

“I don't know, isn't Japan a master at robotics? They’ve managed to create some pretty convincing flesh robots. And you’re sure as emotionless as a robot.”

Night Ninja got up and strolled towards him; Greg thought he’d maybe taken it too far and got ready to dodge whatever was going to be thrown at him, but once again his fears were proven unfounded as the villain simply laid his hand on his chest.

_Well, this just went from tense to awkward,_ Greg thought.

“You can feel my body heat, can't you?” Night Ninja said. “Not a robot.”

“Okay, so you’re not a robot.” Greg replied. “Who are you, then?”

Night Ninja removed his hand from the blond and grabbed his mask. Greg leaned forward in anticipation, but Night Ninja gave another laugh.

“Just kidding. You didn't think I was actually going to take it off, did you?”

Greg did, but he wasn't going to admit to being so gullible so he kept his mouth shut.

“You're a hoot, Greg. You were always my favourite PJ mask, aside from the fact that you keep fighting me all the time.” Night Ninja sat back down again, this time right next to the hero.

“Your favourite? Really?”

“Course. Invisibility? Wall-climbing? Being a fly in the room is what a ninja is all about. You’d make a great ninja, Greg.”

“If this is some plan of yours to recruit me I’m not-”

“Oh, no. Don’t dream about it.” Night Ninja waved away the notion. “There’s only room for one ninja in Tarabiscoville, and it’s me.”

“I don’t know. Now that you mention it, I do like the idea of being a Teenage Ninja Lizard.”

Greg had to give the villain credit, he managed to keep a straight expression. “I’m sure Romeo’s got some mutant ooze you can stick your hand into.”

“Have you seen their new movie that just came out?”

“I’ve got a copy, but I haven’t watched it yet.”

“Aw man! I want to watch, but I don’t have the money.”

Night Ninja tapped his chin. “Tell you what, why don’t you come to my place and we can see it together?”

“Where _do_ you live?” The possibility of watching the movie made Greg forget about being careful for a second.

Night Ninja leaned in close. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.” He smirked. “Ninja vanish!” Night Ninja did something – Greg wasn’t sure what, it happened too fast – and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“Great...” Greg picked up his clothes ready to put them on when he noticed there was a card on it. Picking it up, he read:

_furuikeya_

_tokage tobikomu_

_mizu no oto_

See you there, little lizard ;)

Greg raised an eyebrow. It was most likely Japanese, but he’d have to look up what it says. Putting his PJs back on the green hero headed back to the Gekko-mobile and contacted Catboy.

“Gekko! What took you so long? Did you learn who Night Ninja is yet?”

“Uh, kind of?”

“Kind of? So is that a yes or a no?”

“I have some leads.” Greg decided to keep things vague. No doubt if Catboy found out he was going to Night Ninja’s place he’d freak out about how it’s certainly a trap and either forbid him from going or tag along. Neither were desirable. “Where’s Owlette?”

“She went home. Apparently she had too much stuff to do to continue on this important PJ masks work.”

“Well, it is rather late...” Greg looked at the clock on the dashboard. “Did either of you find anything?”

“Well, no.” Catboy admitted. “But I feel much better knowing that the city is safe.”

Gekko opted not to answer; sometimes, talking with Catboy is like talking to a brick wall. The hero started the car and drove back to HQ, ready to pack up and go home.


	2. Chapter 2

“Curse you, PJ masks!” Luna Girl shouted. “I will get you someday!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Connor ushered the villain out of the museum.

“Bye, Luna Girl!” waved Gekko.

“Whew, another job well done.” Owlette held up her arm for a high-five, which Gekko returned. “You want to go back home now?”

“You go with Catboy. I’ve got an errand to run.”

“Alright. Stay safe, Gekko.” Owlette followed Catboy out the front door of the museum. Gekko waited until their voices faded before taking out the card Night Ninja gave him yesterday. After typing the text into a translator he’d managed to figure out it was a well-known poem that went

_At an ancient pond_

_A frog leaps in the water_

_Sound of water splash_

Except the word _frog_ was replaced by _lizard_. It was pretty obvious what he had to do. Thankfully there was only one pond that he knew of in Tarabiscoville that was public property – he doubted the entrance to the Ninja’s hideout was going to be in some random person’s garden, or more ridiculously, inside the HQ – so the hero made his way over there.

As it was night the town was deserted as usual, so Gekko didn’t have to worry about rousing suspicion when he went poking about the edge of the water. He didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary; it just looked like any other pond. The poem did say jump in, though...

Gekko shrugged; he could breathe underwater anyway, so there was no risk of drowning. The hero closed his eyes and took the plunge. Instead of hearing a splash or any feeling of wetness as he expected though, his feet landed on solid ground.

Opening one eye, Gekko noticed he was next to, for lack of a better term, a little house on the prairie, although instead of a shack it was a two-story traditional Japanese dwelling. Looking around, the hero spotted white mist that surrounded the house, impossible to make out anything beyond 50 metres.

"Took you long enough." A voice next to Gekko's ear startled the hero.

"Night Ninja! Where are we?"

"My place, of course."

"Under a pond?"

"Don't be silly. The pond is simply the gateway. It's a similar principle to Mystery Mountain." The villain held out a hand. "Join me?"

Gekko took Night Ninja's hand, who led him to the front steps. "No shoes in the house, little lizard."

"This costume is kind of a one-piece suit."

"Then I guess you can just be naked again."

"Well, you are the host..." Gekko made to take his costume off.

Night Ninja rolled his eyes. "You do remember you can just turn back into your PJs, right?"

"Oh." Why was his first thought to strip? The hero depowered back into Greg and proceeded to remove his shoes, leaving him in just his pyjama shirt and pants.

"Nice place."

"Why thank you. I built it myself." Night Ninja quickly grabbed a DVD from a bookshelf. "So, about the movie?"

Greg sat down on the sofa while Night Ninja frisbee' d the disc into the DVD player ( _Show off,_ Greg thought). Turning the TV on the villain sprawled on the couch as the introductory adverts played.

"Ugh, it's that dumb 'you wouldn't steal a car' PSA." Night Ninja furiously mashed the 'skip' button on the remote, but of course nothing happened. "Screw you, stupid unskippable clips!"

" _Have_ you ever stolen a car?" Gekko asked.

"I don't think so?" Night Ninja thought. "I mean, if one can run like the wind there's really no point in driving a car, right?"

"Well, Catboy drives, and he has his super cat speed."

"Catboy is lame."

"Tell me about it."

Night Ninja looked over at the blond in surprise. "Wait, you're actually agreeing?"

"Perhaps lame is a bit much. But he's definitely being a downer lately. You know why I found you last night? He was convinced you were up to something no good."

"From the way you acted you seemed to be on the same boat."

"I was simply being cautious." Greg said. "You were sitting barely two metres away, I was unarmed..."

"So was I."

"You had your fists. I'm not good at hand-to-hand combat."

"Thank you!" Night Ninja threw his arms up in the air. "About time someone recognised my brilliance."

"Also, didn't you do that ninja vanish thing? Wait..." Greg's eyes narrowed. "Do your powers come from your mask? Is that why you never take it off?"

Night Ninja was silent for a minute and the hero thought he'd hit the nail on the head, but the ninja eventually replied, "No. Good guess, but no. The mask is purely for anonymity and also because it's cool. The powers all come from here." The villain pointed at the side of his head.

"So, your mask."

"I can't tell if you're deliberately being thick. My ninja powers are a result of years of obtaining knowledge and skills."

"Oh yeah? Prove it."

Night Ninja got up and Greg thought he was going to take his headwear off for real this time, but the villain instead motioned for Greg to join him standing. Facing him, the villain held up his right hand, palm down and fingers curved as if holding an invisible ball. "This is a simple light spell." Flipping his hand around as if turning a doorknob, a sphere of light suddenly appeared in his hand.

"Cool!"

"You try. The trick is to convince yourself that you already have that ball of light, and you are simply turning your hand around to see it."

Greg copied the motions of Night Ninja. The first few tries were unsuccessful, but the villain was patient and, eventually on his sixth attempt, a ball of light appeared in the hero's hand.

"Hey, I did it! You're a pretty good mentor."

"I've always been. You don't get to command a bunch of useless minions without knowing a gentle touch." Almost casually, Night Ninja tossed his ball of light from one hand to another. "You just don't see this side of me on the battlefield."

A thought occurred to Greg. "Hey, how come you never use these in front of us?"

"What good is a light spell going to do?" The villain pointed out. "Most things you can do with ninjitsu are small scale. That's why I need those artifacts An Yu's keeping from me."

"Well, that's not going to happen."

"It was my mountain first!" The villain sat back down on the couch. "Honestly, it's not fair that you three get powers handed to you when we villains have to work for it."

"Hey, just because we get superpower suits doesn't mean we didn't have to train to learn how to use it."

"You did?"

Greg looked up at the ceiling, remembering. "I fell off so many walls when I first tried sticking to surfaces. And Catboy crashed into so many things super-sprinting before he honed his reflexes enough to stop in time. Owlette had the least trouble; flying isn't as difficult to get used to.

"And you remember Armadylan, right? First few nights he got his powers he ended up trashing the school and the streets. You ended up tied to a light post."

"Ugh. That brute." Night Ninja gave a shiver. "Fighting _him_ was the worst. No grace. No strategy."

A sound from the TV made both of them jump. "Oh gosh, we completely forgot about the movie. Did we seriously manage to go through the entire thing without watching a second of it?"

"It's only a 35 minute piece. Unfortunately, it’s late, too. We should wrap up and do this tomorrow night." Night Ninja looked at the clock. "I need to catch up on as many Zs as I can before school."

"You have school?" Greg asked. This night was full of surprises.

"Well, I say 'school'. It's really more of a class. The skills don't come from nothing." Grabbing Greg's shoes he had previously discarded on the floor, the villain tossed the pair over to the hero, who quickly put them on. "Here, I'll teach you the ninja vanish spell. Close your eyes and think of a destination, clear in your head. Again, trick is to really believe you're already there. Then mime dropping a smoke bomb."

Greg did as he was told, visualising his room as clear as he could. "Ninja vanish!" With a puff of smoke Greg found himself back on his bed.

"Nice." Flopping down on the mattress, Greg soon drifted off to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

"Blah blah blah blah blah."

"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah."

"This is stupid!" Gekko said. Romeo had created a ray gun that 'scrambled people's synapses' or something, causing whoever was hit by the way to end up saying what sounded like gibberish. Unfortunately, Catboy ended up being hit by the ray. More unfortunately, so did Romeo, and now Gekko and Owlette were now in Romeo's lab trying to figure out how to reverse the effects.

"Did you find anything, Owlette? An instruction manual or something?"

"No!" Owlette ruffled through a stack of papers. "I mean, if it's Romeo's own invention, then he's probably not going to write a manual for it, right?"

"Great." Greg leaned against a chair, rubbing his head. "I want another sauna."

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing." Mentioning the sauna did give the green hero an idea, though. "Hey, Owlette, what if we ask Night Ninja for help?"

"Night Ninja?" Owlette looked over at her friend and teammate. "How is he going to help?"

"He's got his Ninjalinos who speak their unintelligible language, right? So maybe he knows something about speech."

Owlette thought it over. "Well, I guess it's worth a try. Do you know where he is?"

"Well, about that...I do know, but I can't say. It's confidential." Gekko reasoned that if he barged into Night Ninja's house with Owlette, Catboy, and Romeo in tow it was probably prone to misunderstanding.

"Confidential?" Owlette asked. "You managed to figure out where he lives and you're keeping it a secret?!"

"Blah blah." The scientist piped up.

"Not now, Romeo."

"That's not it, Owlette!" Greg replied. "Night Ninja is telling me a lot about his ninja heritage. I'm learning so much about him; this is a golden opportunity for us to sniff out any weaknesses." That was a lie; the green hero had no intention of telling – now _that_ was dishonourable – but Owlette need not know that.

Luckily the red hero bought his explanation. "Alright. Go bring Night Ninja back here. I'll wait."

Gekko nodded and exited out the lab, picturing Night Ninja's prairie hideout. "Ninja vanish!" Like yesternight, the hero immediately found himself back in the villain's hideout, standing on the sofa.

"Night Ninja? Are you home?"

"Yes." The villain's voice drifted out from somewhere.

"Where are you?"

"Look down."

Gekko turned his head towards his feet and saw that he was standing on the man himself. "Whoops. Sorry." The hero quickly got off.

"Here's another ninja lesson." Night Ninja got up and dusted himself off. "It's considered impolite to teleport directly into people's homes."

"Sorry. I'll be sure to think of the front door next time."

"You're surprisingly early. No hero work tonight again?"

"Au contraire." Gekko explained the situation with Romeo and Catboy to him. Night Ninja shook his head in exasperation.

"That Romeo and his lousy machines. Alright, I'll see what I can do. Ninjalinos!" As if they were standing there waiting all this time three Ninjalinos came out of the shadows. " _Shuppatsu_! _Ikuyo_!" The little minions nodded and Night Ninja opened the front door, only this time instead of leading out onto the prairie like Gekko expected the hero found himself staring at the familiar sight of Tarabiscoville. The hero recognised the street as one just round the corner from where he'd left Owlette and the others.

"How does your house do that?"

"Ninja secret." Night Ninja, his Ninjalinos, and Gekko walked over to Romeo's lab where Owlette lay waiting.

"Finally." The red hero said as she spotted the five of them. "Catboy and Romeo are arguing with each other. Apparently they can understand each other just fine. Hearing them say incomprehensible things is starting to drive me mad."

"No worries, birdbrain. I shall handle it." Night Ninja walked up to Romeo.

"Blah?" said the scientist.

"Yes you nitwit, it's me."

"Blah blah blah."

"Because lizard boy asked."

Romeo gave a smirk. "Blah blah?"

Whatever Romeo said must have hit a nerve with Night Ninja, for the latter bonked the scientist on the head. "Just tell me how to reverse the effects!"

Romeo pointed at the ray gun. Night Ninja picked it up. With instructions from Romeo – at least, Gekko assumed they were instructions; he was still simply saying 'blah' - Night Ninja pressed a bunch of buttons on the device. "There. I think that solves it." The villain pointed the ray at Catboy, who immediately jumped out of the way.

"Blah!" The blue hero said in alarm.

"I assure you, it's safe."

"Blah blah." said Romeo.

"See, he agrees too."

"Blah blah." Catboy pointed at Romeo.

Night Ninja rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll use it on Romeo first." Aiming the weapon at the scientist instead the ninja pressed the trigger and fired. A burst of light shot out from the device.

"Did it work?" asked Owlette.

"Rubber buggy baby bumpers. Yes indeed, I can now speak normally again. Mwahahaha!"

"Still can't evil laugh, though." snarked Gekko.

"Shut up!"

"Blah blah!" said Catboy. Night Ninja shot him with the ray as well. "Ugh. Finally. Imagine if the only person I could talk to for the rest of my life was Romeo."

"That's only because you are too dumb to understand all of my awesome scientific accomplishments."

"Blah blah blah."

"Uh-oh. Night Ninja, I think the ray didn't work properly." Gekko said.

"No, it did." Owlette responded. "Catboy's just being a dork."

"Well," Night Ninja said, discarding the ray gun on the floor. "I think we're done here. Now if you don't mind me, me and my Ninjalinos have a place to be. It's movie night."

"Ooh, what movie?" asked Owlette.

"None of you are invited!" Night Ninja snapped, although Gekko noted the villain very deliberately did not look in his direction when he said that. "Good bye!" The four of them marched off.

Catboy grabbed the ray gun Night Ninja dropped that had given them so much trouble. "I'm keeping this."

"No, you can't! That took months to make!"

"Too bad." Catboy sped off, leaving them in the dust.

"Jerk." Romeo entered his lab, slamming the door harder than strictly necessary. Owlette looked at Gekko. "While Catboy's putting the ray gun in HQ for safekeeping, shall we go home?"

"You go first. I have some cleaning up to do."

"Alright. See you at school tomorrow." Owlette flew off, leaving Gekko alone. Like before, the green hero pictured Night Ninja's house – this time being sure to think of the front door – and ninja vanished to the doorstep.

"Nice." Night Ninja was leaning by the door frame, waiting. "You're getting good at that."

"Thanks." Gekko blushed a bit involuntarily. Depowering back into Greg the blond took off his shoes and entered the villain's house.

"Now," said Night Ninja, holding up a DVD. "I believe we have a movie to watch?"

* * *

“For a movie supposedly about ninjas, they certainly don’t do a lot of ninja stuff.”

“I think it’s just a term, man.”

“That doesn’t mean you can take all sorts of liberties with it!” Night Ninja crossed his arms, annoyed. On the TV, the protagonist charged the bad guy, swords in front. “Like that! You don’t just run at the enemy! You _distract_ them first!”

“I assume you think you can do better?” Greg asked.

“I don’t think, I know I can.” Night Ninja paused the movie and looked over at the blond. “How ‘bout we spar and you try to tag me?”

“Alright, you’re on.” Greg was excited for another opportunity to learn more on how Night Ninja fought. Pressing the button on his wristband the blond transformed into Gekko. Holding his fists out, the hero got into battle position.

Night Ninja did a backflip and landed on the wall. Jumping off the surface, the villain did another graceful somersault, ending up behind Gekko. The hero turned around to face the threat, but by the time he had done so the villain had disappeared.

Gekko heard a sound behind him and ducked just in time. Night Ninja came flying out of the shadows but all he struck was air, landing on the floor in front and doing a roll. The hero moved forward and placed his hand on the villain. “Tag!”

Night Ninja grabbed on to Gekko’s arm and slammed him to the floor. Taking a moment to compose himself, Night Ninja stood up.

“Hey, that’s cheating!”

The villain shrugged. “In life, there are no rules. That means do whatever it takes to win.” Night Ninja held out a hand to help the hero up. “As I said, distract your enemy.”

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” said Gekko. With that, he kicked Night Ninja in the crotch, causing him to double over in pain. Laying a hand on the villain’s shoulder, Gekko smiled and said, “ _Tag_.”

“Goddammit. You could’ve just roundhouse kicked my legs out, you know. That really hurts.” Night Ninja grumbled.

“Sorry. You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just give me a moment.” Stumbling a bit, the villain made his way back on the sofa, Gekko sitting down next to him. “Ninjalinos! Get me some ice!”

An ice pack came sailing out of nowhere and landed right next to Night Ninja, who proceeded to place it on his crotch. “Ah, thank goodness. Much better. Shall we continue with the movie?”

“Let’s.”

Night Ninja pointed the remote at the TV and pressed play; the two of them watched the rest of the feature in silence. When the credits started rolling, the green hero looked over at the blue villain. He was sound asleep; looks like being hit in the gonads had taken more out of him than he expected. Gekko looked at Night Ninja, gears turning in his head. Now was his chance to remove the mask and see who Night Ninja really was, but would it be the right thing to do? The hero drummed his fingers on his lap, thinking it over. Eventually he decided that as a PJ mask he had a duty to see even if it might make Night Ninja mad, so the hero crawled over on top of the villain, trying to make as little sudden movements as possible, and grabbed on to the villain’s mask with one hand, preparing to…

“You know, if you wanted to cuddle you could just ask.”

“Aaah!” Gekko’s other hand, the one he was using to support himself, slipped and caused him to lose his balance, tumbling off the sofa onto the floor. Night Ninja sat up, readjusting his mask. “Need to do better than that, Greggy boy.”

“You were awake that whole time?”

“A ninja is always aware of his surroundings. Even when asleep.”

“Alright, fine. I admit it, we can’t figure out your secret identity, alright? You’re too good. Can we get a hint?”

“It’s getting late.” Night Ninja dodged the question. “You should get home before the sun rises. Don’t worry though, you’ll find out very soon.” Before Gekko could ask what he meant by that, the hero found himself gently but firmly escorted out of the house. As like before, as soon as he went through the door frame he was back in his own bedroom. Turning back into ordinary Greg, the blond laid on his bed and drifted off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

"Do either of you two know where Trondheim is?" said Amaya.

Greg gave it a think-over. "I think it's in Norway?"

"You're planning to go to Trondheim for college?" Connor asked.

"Maybe. It's rated pretty highly on top university rankings."

Connor rolled his eyes. "You don't even speak Norwegian."

"It's _Norway_. I think I can get by with English just fine." Amaya took out her phone and tapped on it, doing research. "It is supposedly really cold, though. Maybe not."

"I still don't know why you don't want to just go to the local one, Amaya."

"I want to get into a reputable college that will help me with my future career."

" _Bo_ -ring." Connor remarked. "Amaya, if you're just going to spend the rest of this nice sunny day cooped up in the library doing research, Greg and I are leaving."

"Fine, leave. Sheesh." Amaya waved them away. "Just don't come running back to me in 20 years because you couldn't get a good job and have to work at the local S00ubway."

Connor got up from the table, Greg giving an apologetic shrug at Amaya before following.

"Can you believe her, Greg? It's bad enough that we have school, Amaya wants to spend her free time on more school."

"I don't know, Connor. I think she's right; we should think about our futures." Greg wondered if maybe he should've stayed with Amaya instead.

"You know the saying 'cross the bridge when you come to it'? We are like, ten kilometres from that bridge. I'm getting depressed just thinking about it." Connor stopped by a water fountain and had a drink.

"You want to go get ice cream or something?" Greg asked, eager to talk about anything else.

Connor's face lit up at the prospect of a delicious frozen treat. "Finally, you're speaking my language! Now that's what being a kid is all about."

The blond and brunet exited the school library, Connor taking a deep breath at the fresh outside air. Together, they walked along the street until they reached the plaza, chatting about a variety of subjects. Greg made sure to steer well clear of the topic of Amaya.

Connor went up to the counter and ordered – being friends, he was well aware which ice cream and what toppings his blond friend liked – while Greg looked for an empty table. Spotting one, Greg walked over and took a seat, idly twiddling his thumbs as he waited for Connor to return with ice cream.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” Greg looked up. Standing there was a black-haired boy about the same age as him. He was wearing a blue T-shirt with an N on it, white shorts, sandals, and in his hand he was holding an ice cream of unknown flavour – the spitting image of a person going to the beach, Greg thought. He wondered if he should tell the teen the nearest one was an hour’s drive away.

“No, the seat’s free.”

“ _Arigatou, tokage-chan._ ”

Greg froze. "Night-" Greg started, only to be stopped when a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Oi! Keep it down. You want everyone to hear you? Especially..." the villain looked over at Connor.

“What makes you think I won’t just tell him who you are?”

“Because I,” Night Ninja said, “Have the sequel to that movie we watched yesternight.”

“What? But it’s not even out in theatres yet!”

“I have my ways.”

“You mean you stole the film.”

“Call it what you want, Greg, but I know you’d love to see it.”

Greg bit his lip. This was probably the most questionable thing he’d done, but his eagerness to see the new movie overwrote his moral sense to do the right thing. “Fine. I’ll keep my mouth shut. What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Oh, I'm always here. You just never noticed because you don't know my face under the mask."

"Alright, can’t argue with that." Greg looked at the ice cream the other teen was eating. "What flavour is that?"

"Black sesame. We Japanese are masters of ice cream."

"I am also pretty sure ice cream is not Japanese."

"I said _masters_ , not _inventors._ The West may have created ice cream, but we took it and made it better, with awesome new flavours." The teen held out the cone. "Wanna try?"

Greg leaned forward and gave it a small lick. "Alright, touché. That _does_ taste good."

"Ahem." For the second time that day, Greg looked up; this time, it was Connor fake-coughing to get his attention. He was holding the frozen dairy products they had ordered. Grabbing a chair and sitting down next to Greg, the teen handed a cone to his friend. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, Connor!”

“So who’s this new friend of yours?” Connor gestured over at Night Ninja.

“This is-”

“My name’s Shinobi. Pleased to meet you. Has Greg never told you about me?” Night Ninja held out a hand for Connor to shake. The Latino boy returned the gesture, studying him for a few moments.

“Shinobi, huh? No, I don’t think Greg ever mentioned you.. You sound kind of familiar, though.”

“Oh, I do voice acting. You might have heard of me from a PSA.”

Connor nodded, apparently having bought his explanation. “I don’t seem to have seen you around in school.”

“Homeschooled.”

“Ah. So how did you meet Greg?”

“Oh, this guy?” Night Ninja looked over at the blond. “Wasn’t looking where he was going and bumped right into me. Clumsy oaf.”

“Hey, that never happened!” Greg protested.

Night Ninja ruffled Greg’s hair. “He’s still embarrassed about it.”

“Shinobi,” Greg said through gritted teeth, “Can I talk to you in private for a second?”

“Sure thing.”

Greg dragged Night Ninja around the corner and out of sight of Connor. “What the hell, man?”

“I know! I could barely keep a straight face. I can’t believe he didn’t recognise me just because I had my mask off.”

Greg bit his lip to keep from smiling; the last thing he wanted to do was encourage him, even if it was pretty funny. “Is Shinobi your real name?”

“Course not. It’s just Japanese for ‘endurance’, which is what ninja means - ‘a person who endures’.” Night Ninja pointed at Greg’s face. “You’ve got ice cream on your mouth, by the way.”

“Crud.” Greg made to wipe it off but Night Ninja grabbed his arms. “Hold on. Did I mention that I love pranks?”

“No?”

“Well, I do. HEY, CONNOR!” The villain yelled.

“What is it?” Drifted the Latino’s voice.

Night Ninja waited until the brunet came into view before leaning in close and licking the ice cream off Greg’s lips, who was too shocked to react. Without a word, the villain ran off, leaving Connor and Greg standing there very confused, though each for different reasons.

Connor broke the silence first. “So, Greg. Is this why you kept Shinobi a secret from me?”

“Huh?”

“When I first saw you two, you were sharing an ice cream. Then he totally kissed you before leaving.” Connor placed a hand on Greg’s shoulder, giving his friend a comforting smile. “Hey, look, if you’re not ready to tell people that you’re seeing a guy, I won’t say a word.”

“I...” Greg finally got what Connor was implying. Very thankfully, he had enough self control to stop himself cursing Night Ninja at the top of his lungs.

* * *

“You jerkwad!” Greg yelled. It was now night, and as soon as he had finished his PJ Masks work the hero had ninja vanished to Night Ninja’s house to chew out the villain.

“Oh come on. It was funny.” Night Ninja could barely keep himself from laughing. He was still wearing the beach outfit he donned that day. “Imagine if Connor knew who I _really_ was. He’d freak out even more than you did.”

“Is this your plan all along? To humiliate me in front of my friends? I knew you were a villain, Night Ninja, but that’s cruel even by you.”

“Woah, hey. Calm down, lizard.” Night Ninja was quick to dismiss the notion. “I didn’t mean anything malicious by it. I just thought it’d be a good prank.” The villain sat down on the sofa, one leg swinging. “I’m sorry if I made you upset, Greg. Honest.”

Greg took in a deep breath and exhaled. “Fine. I forgive you. But you better not pull anything like that again.”

Night Ninja held up the TV remote. “What do you say we watch the movie, then?”

Greg sat down next to the villain, and the two watched as the feature started rolling.

* * *

“Well, that was terrible.” Greg remarked.

“Total agreement. What happened to the action? The stealth? It just turned into a shoddy rom-com.”

Greg made a face. “Gasping geckos, I just realised my first kiss was with you.”

“Technically, all I did was lick your mouth. If you want a real kiss, we can...”

Night Ninja made a few smooches. Greg gently pushed him away.

“Quit it, you nut! Why do you suddenly want to kiss me so much?”

“Cause you’re cute?” Night Ninja remarked almost off-handedly.  
“I’m cute?” Greg processed this new information. “Wait, is this why-”

“Come on, lizard boy. I told you my secret hideout, taught you ninja moves, we watched two movies together.”

Greg was silent for a few seconds before facepalming himself. “Goddammit.”

“Penny finally dropped, huh.”

“You are a terrible communicator.”

“I prefer to think of you as being thick.” Night Ninja leaned in close to Greg again, placing his head on the latter’s chest. “But don’t worry. I like you this way.”

“Well, I-” Greg paused. “I’m not really sure Connor and Amaya would approve of this.”

“They don’t have to know.”

“What about our night-time hero/villain roles?”

“We can keep up appearances. You try not to maim me, I’ll try not to maim you. So, my kiss?”

“Well…” Night Ninja didn’t give Greg a chance to answer when he felt pressure on his lips again. Unlike at the ice cream shop, this kiss was much more in-depth and passionate. Greg closed his eyes, focusing exclusively on the warmth of the other.

The kiss only lasted a second but felt like hours and Night Ninja pulled away, a smirk on his face again like someone had glued it there. Greg blushed and looked away. “I’m sorry, I’ll have to think about this.”

“That’s okay. I understand.” Night Ninja got up. “See you around, lizard.”

Greg gave a hesitant wave and backed out the door into his bedroom. Looking in the mirror atop his dresser, he touched his lips with his hand, going through the events that happened that night. Him, dating Night Ninja? The teen laid on his bed, thinking of all the implications and consequences that this could lead to.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, Greg was spending time doodling on a sketchbook during recess.

“Greg.”

Upon hearing his name, the blond looked up. “Shinobi.”

“So, this is awkward.” Night Ninja said, “But, would you happen to be free after school today?”

“Is this another one of your courting attempts?”

“Oh, no no no. This is completely different.” Replied the villain. “You remember a week ago when we were in the sauna and my you-know-whos were trying to figure out how to make a cake?”

“Yeah?”

“As it turned out, they wanted to make a cake to celebrate my birthday.”

“Really? It’s your birthday?”

“Yeah. I’m turning fifteen.”

“Oh wow, I’m so happy for you!” Greg grabbed Night Ninja’s hand and shook it.

“Don’t be. They made too much cake and now my entire kitchen’s full of them. I was wondering if you wanted a slice or five.”

“Mmm. Cake.” Greg licked his lips. “Hey, why don’t you invite Connor and Amaya too?”

The villain made an incredulous face. “Have you forgotten that we’re enemies?”

“But _we_ used to be enemies, and you’re inviting me to your party.”

“It’s really not a ‘party’ per se, it’s just going to be me, you, and the you-know-whos. How do you expect to explain that to the two?”

“Alright. I guess you have a point.” Gekko closed the sketchbook.

“Plus,” Night Ninja grabbed Gekko and pulled him close, smirking, “I like it better when we’re alone.”

“Don’t do that.”

* * *

Greg double-checked the birthday card he bought was safely in his pocket. It wasn’t the most thoughtful gift, but given he only had like, 8 hours advance warning he didn’t exactly have the time to get a more personal present. Besides, he wasn’t sure what the villain even liked, aside from some ninja artefacts from Mystery Mountain which was definitely out of the question.

The blond ninja vanished from his bedroom to Night Ninja’s hideout.

“Finally.” Night Ninja was, again, standing by the door waiting. “My kitchen is going to get ants soon if this cake problem isn’t taken care of.”

“How do you even get ants in the middle of nowhere?”

“You know those buggers can find their way anywhere.” Night Ninja replied matter-of-factly.

Greg handed the card over to the villain. “Happy birthday.”

“Greg, you shouldn’t have.” Night Ninja opened up the card and read it, giving a small whistle as he did so. “Impressive. You’ve managed to write it in Japanese.”

Greg blushed, embarrassed. “It’s not that hard. I just translated and copied the characters from my phone.”

“Still, very thoughtful.” Night Ninja gave Greg a hug.

“So, about the cake…” The blond tried not to think about how intimate he was being. Maybe coming here was a mistake.

“Oh right, the cake. Follow me.” Night Ninja strolled through his house, Greg following. Reaching a door the villain slid it open. “There, see? This is a disaster.”

At school Greg thought Night Ninja was exaggerating about the amount of cake, but apparently he wasn’t. The kitchen wasn’t even that small – it was as big as his bedroom – but every counter had a cake on it. Greg counted; there were 15 in total, each as big as a dinner plate and as tall as his head.

“Dude, Night Ninja-”

“I know.” The villain rubbed his temples. “I’ve got to tell the Ninjalinos the tradition is 15 _candles_ , not 15 cakes.” Walking over to the nearest one Night Ninja cut a slice and offered it to Greg. “Here, try one.”

Greg took a bite. “What flavour is this?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s peach and strawberry?” Night Ninja cut a slice for himself and munched along with Greg.

“I don’t think we can finish all 15 of these by ourselves, Night Ninja.”

“Well, what else am I going to do with them?” The villain cut a slice from a different cake. “We should at least have a slice from each one. Those Ninjalinos might be idiots, but I don’t want to hurt their feelings.”

So the two of them had 15 slices of cake each. Greg had to admit that the cakes were really good (Night Ninja took the time to remark that the Japanese are also masters of cake, prompting Greg to roll his eyes and ask whether they were also masters of humility), but after eating so many both of them had to lie down on the floor, stomachs full and feeling queasy.

“Ugh. Too much cake.”

“I am never having cake again in my life.”

"You've got some frosting on your lips, Greg." Night Ninja made to lick it off again, but the blond pushed him away.

"I told you already Night Ninja, quit being so touchy-feely."

"I'm not hearing a no, though..."

Greg grabbed a slice of cake and threw it at the villain. "If you want cake so much, here."

Night Ninja wiped the dessert off of his face. "Alright, you asked for it." Grabbing one of the cakes (chocolate) the villain plopped the whole thing over Greg's head. In response, the blond grabbed a cake of his own (raspberry and lime) and smooshed it in the villain's face. The next five minutes involved the two throwing various cakes at each other, eventually devolving into cake-snowball fights when they had run out of slices.

"Well." Night Ninja said when the kitchen ended up looking like a tornado had swept through. "I guess that's one way to use up 15 cakes."

"Ugh, we're a mess." Greg took a look at himself; globs of cake were everywhere.

"We should probably shower." The villain began removing his T-shirt. Greg covered his eyes.

"Dude! Why are you taking your clothes off here?"

"Uh, hello? I'm not trodding cake all over my house." Discarding his t-shirt, the villain proceeded to begin removing his shorts. "You can join me or you can ninja vanish back to your house. But don't step out of the kitchen."

Greg thought it over. Obviously this was just Night Ninja's attempt to get them to shower together, but unfortunately he couldn't think of a way to explain to his parents why his clothes had cake and frosting all over if he went home. Why did he start that cake fight?

Sighing, the blond copied the villain in removing his clothes, discarding his PJ top, shorts, and boxers before following the black-haired teen over to the bathroom.

As like the rest of the house, Night Ninja's hideout bathroom followed a vaguely Japanese style, meaning it had both a shower and a tub. The villain turned the shower on and began rinsing himself while Greg marveled at the spaciousness. "This place alone is almost as big as my bedroom."

"As I've said, we Japanese take showers very seriously." The villain pointed the showerhead at Greg, spraying him with water and getting his hair drenched.

"Hey!"

"Well, you've got to get wet eventually." Continuing to wash himself off Greg stood there waiting for his turn until he realised he was basically staring at the villain's naked figure and looked away, embarrassed. He wasn't sure if the villain was just meticulous or if he was putting on a show on purpose, but it seemed like Night Ninja was taking forever.

"All yours." Night Ninja grabbed a bar of soap and began washing himself while Greg doused himself with water. Midway through though he felt the villain pressing himself up against his back, causing the blond to fumble and nearly drop the showerhead.

"Don't mind me. Just rinsing."

"Right..." Greg turned off the shower in order to soap himself when he felt pressure on his chest; looking down, Night Ninja was holding said soap and was now scrubbing him.

"I can do it myself!"

Night Ninja didn't respond and simply continued cleaning the blond, one hand soaping and the other lathering, lingering on each area a bit longer than was necessary. Finishing up his chest the villain moved on to his arms, stomach, and continued his journey down...

"Nope! Nope." Greg pulled out of there before the villain's hands wandered any lower.

"What?" The Ninja shrugged, acting oblivious.

Greg snatched the soap out of his hand and finished up the job, ignoring the fact that the villain was standing there observing him. Rinsing himself off Greg quickly stepped out of the shower, the villain following behind.

"You've got towels, right?"

Opening up a cabinet Night Ninja tossed a cloth over to the blond, who dried himself and tied it around his waist. Looking over at the villain Greg was relieved to see he'd done the same.

"You can keep the towel. I've got plenty."

"What about my clothes?"

"I'll get the Ninjalinos to wash them and send them back to you. Tonight was fun. Bye now!" Night Ninja sat down on the sofa, crossing his legs and placing them up on the coffee table like he had no worry in the world. Shaking his head, Greg exited out the front door and returned to his bedroom, putting on his PJs in preparation for this night's hero duty.


	6. Chapter 6

“Ah...choo!”

“Bless you, Greg.”

“Thanks, Connor.” It was now the next night, and unfortunately the hero now found himself with a terrible upset stomach. The teen took a sip of water from the glass next to him. “Ugh, I can't believe I got sick!”

“I mean, if you stuff your face with 15 slices of cake it’s kind of inevitable.” Amaya said. “Where did you even find so much cake, anyway?”

“Oh, I had some money and a cake shop was having a sale.” Gekko waved away the question.

Connor came over to give him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Don't worry. You get some rest. We'll handle any threats tonight.”

“Thanks, guys.” Greg smiled. Looking over at the window he gave a small gasp. “Speaking of, the moon's rising. You two better head to HQ.”

“On it.” The two heroes pressed their wristbands that transformed them into two beams of light, disappearing out the window. Once they were gone and the teen was alone, the blond grabbed a comic and began reading.

“Can the PJ Masks handle whatever threats come their way with a team member down?” said a voice from nowhere.

“Night Ninja.” Placing the comic down Greg looked around, although it was mostly for appearances; he knew that the villain was going to show himself regardless. As he predicted, he dropped down from the ceiling.

“Hello again, Greg.” Night Ninja, who was now back in his trademark starry blue costume, held his hand out the window and a box dropped down, landing perfectly on his palm - one of the Ninjalinos must be on the roof and tossed it down for him, Greg realised.

“Of course Catboy and Owlette can handle their own without me. We're strong.”

Night Ninja was now pouring the contents of the box – a powder of some sort – into Greg’s cup of water.

“What’s that you’re adding?”

“Traditional herbal remedy. It’ll help the pain.” The villain sat down on the edge of the bed. "How's my little prince?"

"Don't call me your little prince."

Night Ninja held up the glass of water, inviting Greg to take a sip. The blond did so, immediately feeling much better.

"Wow, this stuff really works. What's in it?"

"Now that," The villain responds, "Is a family secret."

"You have family?"

"Course I do. You think I just appeared out of the thin air one day?"

The idea of Night Ninja spending time with his parents, doing the same things a normal kid did was an odd mental image. "So how come we've never seen them around?"

" _Your_ parents are hardly ever around." The villain pointed out, flopping down on Greg's bed. "I like your bed. It's comfy."

"Get off." The mattress was nowhere big enough for two of them, and Greg was feeling squished.

"You want me to get off?" The villain asked. Shrugging, he began removing his pants.

"NOT THAT SORT OF GETTING OFF!" The blond yelled.

The villain stopped undressing and laughed. "You're cute when you're flustered, Greg." Grabbing the comic the blond was reading Night Ninja read the title. " _The Adventures of Apollo the Super-Pup_? I've never heard of this."

"It's about a pup who has superpowers, flying to save whoever is in trouble."

"Aren't you already a superhero yourself? Wouldn't you rather read something that isn't so close to your own job?"

Greg shrugged. "If I didn't like being a superhero I would've quit the PJ Masks ages ago."

Night Ninja flicked through a few of the pages. "Eh. Not interesting." Placing the comic back down on the bedside table the teen looked around for something else to do; spotting a pack of playing cards, the villain's eyes lit up. "Ooh, I love cards! You know how to play Texas Hold'Em?"

"No?"

"I'll teach you. First, each player gets dealt five cards. Then..."

* * *

"Full House." Night Ninja laid his cards down on the mattress, where the two have been playing poker for the past hour. "Read and weep."

"Ugh, there are too many combinations!" Greg looked down at the cheat sheet he had on his phone. "How do you keep track of all of them?"

"You'll slowly remember all the winning hands as you play more. Speaking of winning, about my prize..."

"We never agreed on a prize."

Night Ninja smirked. "Because if I told you the loser has to strip, you'd probably not want to play."

Even though he was fully clothed, Greg crossed his legs, blushing. "I..."

"Don't worry. I'll settle for a kiss." Night Ninja leaned in real close to Greg. Not having the energy to argue, the teen gave the villain a quick smooch on the cheek. "There's your kiss. Happy now?"

A noise from the window caught their attention; streaks of blue and red light zipped in through the window, materialising into Connor and Amaya. Greg panicked and looked over at Night Ninja, but to his relief the villain had somehow managed to change into his T-shirt and shorts in record time.

"Greg, good news. We defeated-" Amaya started, before she noticed they had a newcomer in the room. "Oh. Who's this?"

"I'm Shinobi. Pleased to meet you." Night Ninja grabbed Amaya's hand and shook it, who smiled and returned the gesture. Connor, on the other hand, looked uncomfortable; Greg realised that since Night Ninja had gotten dressed in a real hurry his clothes were all wrinkled. Coupled with the fact they were both on his bed, it looked like...

"Oh, god." Greg quickly stood up like his mattress had scalded him. "Shinobi, why don't you leave while I talk with my friends here? We have something private to discuss." Greg asked. Given that Night Ninja was, well, Night Ninja, there was no need to be vague or secretive or even the necessity for him to be out of earshot, but evidently "Shinobi" did not want either of the other two PJ Masks to know who he really was, so Greg opted to go with the charade and pretend he was just an ordinary kid.

"As you wish." Night Ninja exited out Greg's bedroom door.

"Greg, you really should warn us if you're going to have a friend over. We almost revealed our secret identities!" chided Amaya.

"He basically barged in without warning!" Greg protested.

"Well, we came here to tell you that Luna Girl has been dealt with, and see how you were faring. What happened to your upset stomach?" Connor was still avoiding looking at him.

"He brought me a home remedy that soothed the symptoms."

"Well, that's great news, Greg." Amaya said "I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school, then?"

"Sure. Bye, Amaya!" Greg waved as the brunette left his bedroom. Picking up the playing cards still on his mattress, the blond realised that Connor still hadn't left.

The Latino grinned. "So how was the 'home remedy'?" Connor made air quotes as he said that.

"Huh?"

"I mean, he's got to be really good if it's enough to make you forget your stomach trouble."

Greg grabbed the glass of water and splashed it in the brunet's face.


	7. Chapter 7

“You are never going to get away with this, Night Ninja!”

“Oh, piss off, PJ pests, and find somebody else to harass!” Night Ninja was currently running through the city with a wheelbarrow full of fertiliser – or to be more precise, one of his Ninjalinos was, with Night Ninja following behind. With artistic mastery both of them dodged the owl feathers and cat stripes that Owlette and Catboy were throwing at him. Gekko, lacking any ranged powers, simply kept up.

“I don’t know what you’re planning to do with those bags of poo, but it can’t be good!” yelled Catboy.

“For the last time, they’re for gardening, and they’re not poo!”

“Don’t care! Cease and desist!”

“You’re not the police! _Kusokarae_!” Night Ninja grabbed one of the bags of fertiliser and threw it at the trio. Gekko managed to avoid it, but Catboy was hit and went down with an oof.

“Catboy!” Owlette yelled. “Gekko, you stop Night Ninja. I’ll see if Catboy needs help.” The green hero nodded and continued chasing the villain. turning a corner though, Gekko found that all trace of Night Ninja and his minions had disappeared.

“Where’d they go?” Gekko wondered, before remembering Night Ninja had the ability to ninja vanish. “Of course.” Picturing Night Ninja’s house, the green hero soon vanished in a puff of smoke.

“ _Minna, are wa urade no niwa e. Hayaku!_ ” The green hero heard the villain barking orders at his minions. Strutting over, he grabbed him by the arm. “Night Ninja! those aren’t yours. Give the fertiliser back.”

Night Ninja shook Gekko’s arm away. “Why did I teach you that ninja vanish spell? No can do, lizard. I need the fertiliser for my garden.”

“Your garden?” Gekko didn’t take the villain for a gardening type.

“Yes, I find working with plants soothing. It’s a place where I can meditate, relax, focus...get away from annoying heroes.”

Gekko pretended not to hear that last part. “Yeah, I’m not buying it.”

“Fine. I’ll show you.” Night Ninja held up a hand, which Gekko took. The villain led the hero through the house until they eventually arrived at a small courtyard.

“Wow...” As it turned out, Night Ninja wasn’t lying. Gekko had to admit, it was lovely. If the hero didn’t know better, it was like he’d stepped right into the middle of a forest. Night Ninja led Gekko through the garden, pointing out the various features. “See?” said the villain when he got to a bunch of potted plants. “Here are the plants I’m growing. that’s why I need the fertiliser.”

“Ooh, what are these?” Greg reached out at one of the plants, with petals that were the exact same colour as the moon crystals. They even sparkled and reflected light like crystals. Upon touch, though, they felt just like an ordinary flower.

“Lunar lilies. From the moon.”

Greg raised an eyebrow. “How-”

“Don’t ask me. Ask Luna Girl, that’s her domain.”

“Sounds exotic.”

The villain shrugged. “Not really. I just stole a few seeds from her.” Night Ninja gave the lily a gentle tap; a melodic noise emitted from it, like a windchime.

“Wow. That’s beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as you.”

“Hush.”

“Now you see why I need the fertiliser?” Night Ninja said. Pointing at the wheelbarrow, he continued, “Look, how ‘bout you take all but one? You could just say you couldn’t get the last one. It’s not even technically lying.”

“I don’t know...” Looking around at the garden again, the hero gave a sigh. “Fine. But only because what you have here is really beautiful.”

“Thank you. Bye now!” The villain ushered the hero, pushing the wheelbarrow, through the house and out the front door, and Gekko soon found himself back where he was. Catboy and Owlette came running up to him.

“Gekko! I see you got the fertiliser back.”

“Yeah. I couldn’t catch Night Ninja, but luckily I got his wheelbarrow.”

‘Thank goodness. I can’t imagine what he could do with this.”

“Catboy, it’s just fertiliser.” Owlette pointed out.

“Imagine all the flaming bags of poo he could make! Or worse, smoke bombs! Even even worse, flaming poo smoke bombs!”

Gekko pushed the wheelbarrow a little faster so he wouldn’t have to hear his friend’s baseless accusations again. Arriving at the store where Night Ninja stole the fertiliser in the first place, the green hero quickly returned the bags before high-fiving his teammates and returning home, changing back into Greg in the process. Just as he was about to get into bed though, the hero noticed a new addition on his bedside table. It was the lunar lily plant he had seen in Night Ninja’s garden. Next to it was a card. Greg picked it up and read:

_For a special friend_

_It needs water twice a week_

_Take it for some walks_

_(Just kidding, don’t do that last one. Unless you_ _want to_ _.)_

Greg gave the plant a light tap like he saw Night Ninja do, listening to the calming chime as he thought about the villain.


	8. Chapter 8

After resting for another day, Greg's stomach issue passed and the blond felt well enough to get up and leave the house. It was a Saturday which meant no school, and Greg decided he was going to go for a walk and enjoy the outdoors after having been cooped up for so long. Taking his backpack filled with some snacks, his phone, his PJs (not for sleeping, but just in case he ran into danger and needed to be Gekko) and a sketchbook if he happens to see something picturesque he wanted to draw, the teen informed his friends where he was going via text message before exiting his house, enjoying the light late morning breeze.

The cul-de-sac where they lived was well familiar to the teen, so Greg was planning to head out the city and see the surrounding wilderness. Putting on a pair of earphones and playing some music he took the path that led him south out and beyond city limits, reaching the metal sign that informed him he was now leaving Tarabiscoville half an hour later.

The area surrounding the urban landscape where Greg lived was temperate and forested, and this time of year was perfect for exploring. Greg took his time looking around for anything interesting: usually there were animals scuttling around the trees and all manner of nuts and berries that could be plucked from bushes and eaten, though the teen decided not to do the latter for fear of upsetting his belly again. Thus, Greg followed a squirrel around as it darted this way and that, climbing trees and gathering fruit for this year's winter.

The squirrel grabbed a few acorns and ran off. Greg followed, making sure to keep a safe and respectable distance. Coming up to a small hole in the side of the cliff the squirrel deposited his goods before scuttling off back into the woods, no doubt to try to obtain more acorns. Greg took a peek: the tiny hole was barely as big as his head, but the treasury was filling up nicely, so to speak.

Leaving the squirrel alone Greg explored the rest of the cliff-face, deciding that he may as well make use of the geology lessons he'd been learning in school, when the teen tripped over something and fell. Looking back, Greg noticed that the ground had a hole in it, and he almost fell in due to not looking where he was going.

"Wow, that was close..." Greg muttered to himself. The hole was unusually round, and if he didn't know better he would've said that this was the result of someone using a drill. In fact, on second observation it resembled a shaft more than a naturally occuring hole.

Greg took a peek inside. It was too dark to see anything; Greg shrugged and was about to leave when he noticed a small something twinkling inside. "Huh?" Greg took out his phone and using the flashlight function shined a light down the shaft, extending for a good bit below the surface the light wasn't enough to reach the bottom.

"Bother." The teen was about to head home and get a glowstick or flare or something when he remembered he knew a light spell from Night Ninja; holding his hand out and turning it around like the villain had taught him Greg found himself holding a ball of light, which he dropped down the shaft.

The ball of light tumbled like a marble as it fell, even making little _plink_ sounds as it bounced off the walls. Unfortunately, even the ball of light's glow wasn't strong enough and he soon lost track of it, still unable to make out the bottom.

Greg scratched his head, curiosity piqued. Whatever that strange glint he saw was, it was somehow able to penetrate through what the teen estimated was at least a 100 meter tall drop. Thinking, Greg's eyes set on his backpack, which had spilled its contents when he tripped. His PJs were lying on the grass in a pile. "Hmm..."

Descending into a cave without suitable equipment should be high on anyone's "Don't" list, but Greg didn't want to have to walk half an hour back to his house to grab gear and return, so after telling himself he was only going down for a second to check, the teen sent another text message to Connor and Amaya, put on his PJs, and pressed the button on his wristband that turned him into Gekko. Putting his things back into his backpack and putting it on, the hero then used his lizard grip to scale the side of the shaft and descend down into the earth.

Gekko had climbed a lot of things, but a narrow shaft was not one of them. He was not claustrophobic, but it was an odd new experience to be heading down a narrow opening where he could bump his head if he just stood up a little, unlike the buildings he usually climbed with plenty of open air behind him (above him?). Turning his head back the hero saw the sun slowly fading; Gekko summoned a second light spell to keep him company, wondering if perhaps this wasn't such a good plan and he should get Owlette along so she can use her Owl Eyes.

Gekko reached a rock wall in front of him, or to be more precise, he reached the bottom of the shaft that appeared to be a wall due to his current vertical position. Deactivating his lizard grip the hero tumbled onto the floor, doing a small roll in the process to decelerate and reduce momentum. Unlike the shaft, this cave was large enough for him to stand up, and the hero looked around for the mysterious shiny object he saw.

Which, as it turned out, was a diamond ring.

Gekko picked up the ring. The hero wondered how it got here: did someone lose it down the shaft, or was it placed here by pirates? Or worse - what if it was cursed, and folks hid it so that it may never rear its ugly head?

Gekko shook his head at the last one; Connor's cynical paranoia was rubbing off onto him again. The ring just looked like an ordinary, unremarkable ring, aside from the fact it was in a strange place. The likeliest explanation was that some unlucky man or woman must have lost it, and Gekko pocketed the thing to bring it to the nearest police station where it would hopefully reunite with its rightful owner.

"Why is it that you pesky PJ Masks always have to be where I am?"

Gekko turned around. A familiar face was standing there, having just climbed down the shaft. "Night Ninja. Seriously? It's day."

"Well, this wasn't supposed to be a confrontation. I just came here to look for something."

"What, this?" Gekko showed the ring to the villain.

"Yes, gimme!" Night Ninja made to grab for the ring, but Gekko stopped him.

"Somehow, I doubt it's yours, Night Ninja."

The villain held out his palm. "Hand me the One Ring to Rule Them All and let me drop it in Mount Doom before it drives us both insane."

"Very funny. Not."

"Okay, fine. It's a wedding ring and I was going to ask you to marry me."

"Oh, well then I guess I'll wear it." Gekko put the ring on.

"NO, DON'T-" Night Ninja cried in alarm, but it was too late. The green hero slid it over his finger. Gekko took a look at his hand.

"I have to admit, it actually kind of suits-" Gekko stopped mid-sentence; the cave had disappeared, and he now found himself in a living room that looked straight out of a fifties TV show. Night Ninja was standing there, head in his palms. Instead of his blue ninja costume, he was wearing a business suit.

"What the..." The hero happened to look down, and realised he, too, had changed: instead of his Gekko costume, he was now wearing a dress and apron. "Ack! What is going on?"

"You just put on," Night Ninja said, exasperated, "The Diamond of Desire. It allows the wearer a chance to live out their fantasies. It's like the holodeck from _Star Trek_. And you had to pretend it was a wedding ring."

"You should've said that earlier! Besides, you put the wedding ring idea in my head."

"I didn't expect you to go wear it!"

"Great. How do we get out of this? Where are we, anyway?"

"We're still in the cave. This is all just a mental fantasy, similar to a lucid dream if you will." Night Ninja picked up a photo frame from a table. "The only way for this to end is for us to play the scenario to completion."

"Great, so what's the scenario and how do we complete it?"

Night Ninja showed the photo to Greg. "I strongly suspect we just got married and moved in. And as is tradition, the first night a couple moves in they..." The villain looked up at the ceiling and left the sentence unsaid; Greg picked up what he was implying.

"Yeah. Not happening." The hero crossed his arms. "Did you plan all this? I'm not going to have sex with you."

"Course not! I like you, Greg; I would not make you do something you're unwilling."

"What happens if I just take the ring off?" Greg tried removing the Diamond from his finger.

"You can't."

"Aargh!"

"Seriously. 'Two people get trapped in a room and have to have sex to leave', this sounds like something straight out of a crappy story."

"Is there another way we could finish the scenario?"

"Well," Night Ninja thought, "We could try getting a divorce. Ugh, I can't believe I just said that."

"Great. Divorce. Let's go." Greg stormed out the house with Night Ninja in tow. Spotting a car which the blond presumed to be "theirs", he quickly got in and started the engine, barely waiting for the villain to get strapped in before speeding off. The town they was exactly the same as Tarabiscoville in terms of the road layout and landmarks, but all the architecture had a very mid-century look to them.

"Why is it that these sitcoms always go with 1950s America?" Night Ninja asked.

"I don't know, I don't care." Greg stepped down harder on the accelerator.

The two of them reached Town Hall whereupon Greg leaped out of the car and dragged Night Ninja along with him up the stairs. Bursting in through the door the blond and black-haired duo got in line; thankfully the line was short.

"You know honey, I'm sure we can work things out." said Night Ninja.

"Shut up."

"Next!"

Greg ran up to the counter. "I want to file for divorce."

"Okay." The man behind the counter said, tapping on his keyboard. "Let me just print out the documents for you."

"Did they even have personal computers in 1950?" pondered the villain.

"Would you quit it?"

"Here you go." The man handed a piece of paper to Greg. "Now, are you sure that both of you have thought this through?"

"Yes!"

"Then please sign on the bottom right there."

Greg grabbed a pen and scribbled his signature; handing the writing utensil over to Night Ninja the villain did the same. The blond then gave the paper back to the man.

"Congratulations. You two are now divorced." With that, the room began fading and soon Greg and Night Ninja found themselves back in the cave, wearing their green and blue costumes.

"Oh, thank goodness. We're back." Gekko quickly removed the Diamond of Desire and pocketed it.

"Hey, give that to me! It's mine!" Night Ninja tried to snatch the ring from Gekko again, but the hero fought him off.

"Fat chance, Night Ninja. I'm confiscating this." Gekko ninja vanished back to his bedroom and hid the ring beneath a rock in Lionel's terrarium; normally the PJ Masks would place these in the vault at HQ, but given the villain could teleport Gekko reasoned it'd be a better idea to store it in a place he wouldn't expect. Sighing, Gekko depowered back into Greg, sitting down on the bed. It was only afternoon, but he was feeling exhausted.


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright, class." The teacher said. "I hope you all had a good weekend. This week in geography, we're going to do something a little different. I want you to form groups of three. One representative will come up to draw from this bag here." Shaking a bag she was holding in her hands to emphasise her point, she continued: "That piece of paper will have the name of a country on it. I would like you to create a poster about that country with your friends. This will count for 20% of your grade, so I hope you all take this seriously."

The class groaned and began finding people. Greg, Amaya, and Connor of course decided to team up. Connor went up to the front and came back with a strip of paper; Amaya read it.

"Japan! Neat!"

Greg said something rude under his breath.

"Hey Greg, isn't Shinobi Japanese? Could we interview him?"

The blond scowled at the mention of him. "We had a falling out. There was an incident."

"What kind of incident?"

"He was just acting really obnoxious, that's all." Greg kept things vague. For a second he debated telling the truth about Night Ninja, but eventually decided not to – he hadn't even told them about the Diamond yet as Catboy and Owlette were bound to press for information on how he got it, and Greg wasn't a good liar, and the last thing he wanted was to have to tell his two friends about what happened Saturday.

"Well, that's a shame. You two seemed like good friends." Amaya remarked.

"Can we just do the project?" The blond asked, not wanting to talk about this any longer.

"Alright, let's start." Connor pulled out his phone and began research; Greg and Amaya did the same.

* * *

"Fascinating. According to this, even though Japan is only the 62nd largest country on Earth, Japanese is the 13th most spoken language in the world."

"Either the country has a _huge_ number of people or tons of non-Japanese learn it."

The three were now walking home from school. As they lived next to each other, Connor and Amaya decided they were going to spend the night at Greg's house so they could continue with the project. Reaching the street that led into their cul-de-sac, the two brown-haired teens popped into their respective houses to grab sleeping bags before making their way back to Greg's; the blond meanwhile trodded up the stairs and entered his bedroom.

"Greg!" A voice called out as soon as he entered. Greg groaned in exasperation.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Night Ninja was sitting on his bed in his civilian clothes. "Look, Greg. I know that you're still upset about Saturday, but you have to admit that it wasn't my fault. At least, not entirely. The wedding ring joke was not so good in hindsight, but I thought you'd throw it on the ground after hearing that."

"I am still not convinced that the whole thing was your set-up." Greg crossed his arms.

"If it was and all I wanted from you was sex, then why would I have suggested trying to divorce?" Night Ninja responded.

"Well..."

"As I've said Greg, I want you to be with me because you genuinely want to be with me." Night Ninja reached behind him and pulled out a rose. "A symbol of love and my apologies." The villain handed the flower over to Greg, who took it cautiously. The blond sighed.

"Fine. Let's just put that whole thing behind us."

"Aww!" Greg turned around; Connor and Amaya were standing in the corridor, smiling. Feeling self-conscious, the blond hid the rose behind him.

"How long have you two been standing there?"

"Not long. Just enough to see Shinobi give you that rose." Connor responded.

Greg walked over and placed the rose in the same pot as the lunar lilies, making a mental note to find a new planter later. "Shinobi, why did you not inform me they were there?"

"I couldn't see. You were blocking the door." Night Ninja replied.

Connor laid out a sheet of A3 paper on the floor. "Actually, it's good that you're here Shinobi. School wants us to make a poster about Japan, and we want to know all about the country."

"Well, what would you like to know?" Night Ninja sat down cross-legged on the boards. "Food? Art? Technology? Ninjas?"

"Not ninjas." Connor made a face.

"Funny. Most people like ninjas."

"We just...had some bad experiences, is all." Amaya sat down next to him. "Why don't you tell us a brief history of the country?"

"Alright. The earliest known period of people living in Japan was circa 40000BC, where it's believed that people walked across a land bridge from the Korean peninsula during the Ice Age. At the time..."

* * *

"Thus, sushi rice was actually originally used for preserving fish, and not for eating."

"Wow, that's fascinating!" Amaya was busy writing all the things Night Ninja was telling them on the poster.

"We're going to get such a good score on this project." Connor smiled, marveling at their work. "And we finished it in record time, too."

Greg had to admit, even though he was still fuming at Night Ninja at first the villain was a good storyteller and remarkably knowledgable about Japan, so that by the end of it all he had forgotten about his irritation with him as he listened to his speeches. Looking out the window the teen observed the sun going down.

"Hey guys, it's turning night."

Amaya had a look of worry on her face. "So uh, guys. About the..."

"Don't fret. I have someone keeping a lookout." Connor said, referring to PJ Robot. "If there's trouble, he can call us."

"Good." Amaya opened her backpack and put the poster in. "Shall we play some games before bed? It's still early."

"I'm up for a game." Connor said. "Shinobi, you're our guest. What shall we play?"

Night Ninja shrugged with indifference. "You got one of those dancing games?"

"Do I!" Greg grabbed DDR from the top of the shelf where he stored his cartridges. "Here we go."

The four of them headed down the stairs to the living room where Greg turned on the console and placed the game in, waiting as it booted up and entered the character select screen.

Connor pointed at one of the characters, the motion sensor detecting his choice. "I'll be the cat."

"I'm gonna be the owl." Amaya said.

"Lizard." That was Greg.

"Unbelievable." Night Ninja muttered.

"Eh?"

"Oh, nothing." The villain chose one of the avatars. "I guess I can be the mouse."

Greg selected competitive mode, where players would be pitted one-on-one against each other until one was declared a winner. Greg and Connor got paired up, along with Amaya and Night Ninja; the lizard and cat stood and prepared to face their opponent.

"I'm sure you'll win, Greg. You've always been a better dancer than me."

"Thanks, Connor. You're still a great dancer, though."

The song started playing and both players did their best to copy the moves shown on the screen; while both did admirably, Greg was able to keep up and match the instructions more closely, landing more "perfect"s. Eventually he was declared the winner and both boys moved back while the other two had their turn. This time, it was much less of a contest: though Amaya wasn't bad by any means, she simply couldn't keep up with the nimbleness and agility of Night Ninja, who managed to nail the dance set with complete accuracy.

"Whew," Amaya collapsed on the nearby sofa to catch her breath once the song was over. "You're really good, Shinobi."

"Thanks."

It was now Greg versus Night Ninja. As the blond stepped up the black-haired kid gave him a knowing smirk.

"May the best man win."

The song started and both began dancing, Greg's natural skill against the Ninja's years of training. Nailing the moveset perfectly, both got the same score and the game declared it a draw. "Draw! Try again!"

Another song began playing as the two danced again, both so equal in skill that neither was able to get an edge over the other. By the end of the second song both were panting slightly, but their scores were still the exact same. The third song started and ended, with both of them gasping for breath and sweating.

"Draw! Try again!"

Greg quickly grabbed the remote and hit pause. "Okay, you know what? Let's just call it a draw."

"Sure thing." Night Ninja agreed, wheezing.

Connor and Amaya gave them a few claps. "I can't believe you two are so good."

"I've never seen anyone get triple-overtime before."

"We should go to bed." Having danced for 15 minutes straight, Greg wanted nothing more than to take a shower.

* * *

Turning off the water Night Ninja double-checked he didn't have shampoo still in his ears. After Connor and Amaya had their turn it was now the villain's time to clean; Greg, as he was the host, opted to be the last. Grabbing a towel the villain stepped out of the shower, only to be greeted by the blond standing outside waiting.

"Hey."

"Shower's all yours, Greg." The villain pointed behind him.

"That's not what I'm here for."

"Oh?"

Greg bit his lip. "I've been thinking, maybe I was wrong to get mad at you for what happened Saturday."

"Yes! Finally." Night Ninja fist-pumped the air. "I'm so glad you're not upset anymore, Greg."

"So, as a way of apologising..." The blond took a breath. "Maybe we could try fooling around or something."

Night Ninja raised an eyebrow. "No date?"

"I'm not sure if we should ever date. Still seems a bad idea to get work and romance mixed up. But if you want..." Greg walked over to the villain and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Join me in the shower?"

The villain grinned and discarded his towel. "Get ready for the scrubbing of a lifetime."


	10. Chapter 10

Connor blinked a few times and got up; picking up his phone it read 21:17. Looking around to see what had woken him he spotted a light emitting from the bathroom. Neither Greg nor Shinobi was in the room.

The Latino boy chuckled as he imagined what the two must be doing in there. Sneaking over to the door he pressed his ear against it; he wasn't intending to perv on them, but since he saw Greg like his little brother he wanted to make sure whoever he was going to be with treated him right.

"What _is_ your real name anyway? I'm not calling you Shinobi."

Connor's face changed to one of confusion. What did Greg mean by that?

"Well, how 'bout Night Ninja?"

"Absolutely not!"

The brunet's face froze. As soon as Night Ninja's name was mentioned he realised why the teen sounded so familiar. Not some dumb PSA. A million thoughts raced through his mind: The fact that Night Ninja was in the next room, the fact that he was _Shinobi_ , the fact that Greg seemed to know...the fact that they were in the shower together!

A mixture of anger and concern caused Connor to barge into the bathroom, completely forgetting that that was generally frowned upon. "Greg!"

"AAAHHH!" Greg and Night Ninja were in the shower. Night Ninja had his hands wrapped around the blond's waist while nibbling Greg's ear.

"You said they were asleep!" The villain hissed.

"I thought they were!"

Connor grabbed the villain and pulled him away. "Get your filthy hands away from him!"

"Connor, it's not what it looks like." Greg looked down at his naked body. "I mean, it is, but it's not what you think."

"Have you two been..." Connor grabbed Greg by the shoulders. "Greg, tell me honestly. Has he been molesting you?"

"No! It's just..." Greg trailed off. "Why was that your immediate thought?"

"I see my little bro in the shower while one of our night-time villains is groping him. What do you expect me to think?"

"How about, 'Maybe Night Ninja isn't so bad and he just wants to spend time with Greg.'?"

"Yeah, like that's going to be the truth." Connor turned his attention on the villain. "What's your intention here? To learn all of our PJ Masks secrets?"

Night Ninja crossed his arms. "Greg's already told you. Whether you believe it or not, I cannot control."

Connor was still standing between him and the villain protectively. Greg sighed and gently pushed him to one side. "Connor, it's fine."

"How long have you two been doing this?"

"Two weeks, give or take? It started when we three were looking around the city because you were convinced someone was up to no good."

"Then we just kind of hit it off." Night Ninja chimed in.

"Mostly. The point is, you need to stop being so paranoid and overprotective, Connor. I know you're just concerned, but I'm nearly fifteen. I can handle myself."

" _You're_ turning fifteen?" Night Ninja asked. "Ooh, I need to ask my Ninjalinos to bake you a cake."

"No cakes! I'm still sick of cakes from the last time!" Greg turned pale at the thought.

"Wait, that's how you got sick eating fifteen cakes?" Connor asked.

"Yeah. I visited Night Ninja's hideout-"

"You know where his hideout is?!"

"Don't interrupt. I visited his hideout and we ate 15 cakes that the Ninjalinos baked for his birthday. Then when I got sick afterward he came to my room to take care of me and spend time with me."

Connor was still looking at Night Ninja suspiciously, but after hearing that he seemed to relax a little. "Okay. I guess if he didn't take advantage of you being out of commission then he's possibly legitimate." The Latino took another look at the villain. "You're awfully pale."

"It's an Asian thing. We can't seem to get tans for some reason." Night Ninja explained, before the implications of that sentence occurred to him. "Hey! No gawking at me!" Grabbing a towel he wrapped it around his torso.

"Get used to it." Greg suggested. "Connor's a real perv." Closing the door to the shower box the teen continued, "I haven't even finished my shower yet. Why don't you get to know each other in the meanwhile?"

Night Ninja got dressed while Connor stood there waiting; finishing up the two exited the door to find Amaya standing there.

“What’s going on? I heard a lot of shouting. I wanted to investigate, but, you know.”

Connor looked over at Night Ninja; no words were said, but the villain got the implication. Sighing, he told his story: “Amaya, I haven’t been honest with you. My name’s not Shinobi. Well, it kind of is, but you probably know it better by its English translation.”

“Oh?”

“Night Ninja.”

The brunette stared for a second, processing this information, before her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here, Night Ninja?” She started to move her right hand toward her bracelet, ready to transform into Owlette if needed.

“Easy!” The Ninja held up both his hands. “I’m not looking for a fight. I just want to spend time with Greg, that’s all.”

Amaya looked over at Connor. “And you trust him?”

The Latino shrugged. “Not really? But Greg does. Apparently this has been going on for 2 weeks according to him, and he’s not made any questionable moves. He’s even visited his hideout a couple of times.”

“If I was planning something, I could’ve just kidnapped Gekko and kept him.” Night Ninja pointed out.

Amaya continued studying the Ninja intensely for a minute. “Alright. I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt for now.” She stated. “But you better not try anything.”

“Not going to.”

“Also,” Connor slid over to the villain, “If you hurt Greg’s feelings, I will personally throw you into the sun.”

“Alright, sheesh.”

The sound of a door opening made the trio look over; Greg had finished his shower and was now coming out, dressed in his PJs. “So, is everyone acquainted?”

"As acquainted as we ever can be." Amaya was sliding into her bedroll.

"I can't believe I spent the entire evening with _Night Ninja_." Connor remarked.

"Did you have fun?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Then he's not so bad now, is he?"

Connor changed the subject. "Were you ever planning on telling us, Greg?"

"See, this is why I kept it from you in the first place. You never give people a second chance."

"He's got a point." Amaya said.

"We've done eight years of PJ Masks. If they haven't changed in eight years, then forgive me for thinking they don't ever want to change."

"Or alternatively," said Night Ninja. "Maybe it's all the stuff that happened in eight years that lead people to change."

Connor  didn’t have a good response for that .


	11. Chapter 11

The next day was a Tuesday. Greg, once school ended, headed off to the plaza where Night Ninja said he always was; true to his word, the blond spotted him sitting at a bench daydreaming.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"Nothing." Night Ninja snapped out of his daze. "Just bored, is all."

Greg took out a plastic bag; inside was what looked like trail mix.

"Going for a jog?"

The blond shook his head. "Bird feed. Just thought I'd give the pigeons something to chew on." Grabbing a handful of the feed Greg tossed it on the ground, whereupon a bunch of pigeons scuttled over and began pecking at it.

"You know, in most places pigeons are considered pests."

"I like them. They're cute."

"I prefer them when they're in a stew."

"You're awful."

Nearby, Connor and Amaya were hiding in a bush.

"Ugh, why did you have to pick one with so many prickly branches, Connor?" Amaya asked.

"Because this is the closest one. Now hush." Connor returned his gaze over to Greg, attempting to observe what his friend and the villain were doing.

"Honestly Connor, we've been here for 5 minutes and all they've been doing is sitting there chatting and feeding the birds. I think Night Ninja's legit."

"It never hurts to be careful."

Back to the bench, Night Ninja was holding a small pile of the bird feed.

"Hey Greg," He says, "Dare you to eat it."

"Sure." Greg grabbed some from the villain's hand; they were mainly seeds after all, and safe to ingest. As he put it in his mouth though, an overeager pigeon came flying over and began trying to peck at the feed in Greg's mouth.

"Ah naah!"

"Hey! Get off, he's taken!" Night Ninja attempted to pull the pigeon away from Greg, but the avian was stubborn. "Remember when I said these are better in a stew?" Pressing two fingers to the bird's neck the pigeon immediately slumped over.

"Holy cow, you just killed it!"

"Relax." Night Ninja picked up the pigeon and gently placed it on the ground. "It's just unconscious, that's all. You okay?"

"I think so?" Greg used his tongue to feel around his mouth. "Doesn't seem like there's any bleeding."

"Here, why don't I look?"

Greg nodded and opened his mouth. The villain cast a light spell and looked inside, using his free hand to gently keep his jaw open. "I don't see anything, either."

"Oh my god, Night Ninja's got his fingers in Greg's mouth!" Connor stated, still in the bushes.

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter, Connor. You saw the pigeon; he's obviously just checking him for possible injuries." Amaya replied.

"Well, looks like you're good Greg. No damage." Night Ninja finished his examination and dissipated the light spell.

"Thanks."

"Ha, you made out with a pigeon."

"Screw you. You would've loved that pigeon to be you, wouldn't you?"

"Course." Night Ninja raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Truth be told, the pigeon's a better kisser."

"Very funny."

"No, it's true. Whenever I kiss you it just feels like a dog slobbering over me."

"Oh, heck no. I'm not getting beat by a bird." Night Ninja faced Greg. "I'll prove to you just how good of a kisser I can be."

The two of them leaned in close and began making out.

"Now they're kissing. Still can't get used to the thought." Connor made a face.

"Well, maybe if you didn't decide to spy on them you wouldn't have to see that." Amaya had stopped paying attention and was doing her homework, but on hearing that she looked over. "I think they're sweet together."

Night Ninja pulled away from Greg, breathing a bit heavily. "Is the pigeon still better than me now?" He asked.

"I don't know. I'll have to gather more data." Greg replied, pulling him in for a second round.

Amaya, meanwhile, had decided to leave the bush having had it with the prickly branches and what she saw as a pointless endeavour, leaving Connor the sole observer. The brunet watched as Greg and Night Ninja pulled away again.

"How bout now?"

"Alright." Greg gave the villain a hug. "You are the better kisser."

Night Ninja laid his head on Greg's shoulder. "By the way, Connor's spying on us."

"He is?"

"Don't look, but he's in that bush." The villain grinned. "Shall we play a prank on him?"

"What are you thinking of?"

"Follow my lead."

***

"So Greg, now that we're friends and all, why don't you show me what your PJ masks HQ looks like?"

"Sure thing, Night Ninja."

Connor stifled a gasp. He knew it! And they called him paranoid. "Come on, Greg. Don't fall for it..." He whispered to himself.

Greg and Night Ninja were gone. Cursing, the Latino quickly ran to the park where the totem pole was; it was a good 15 minutes away from the plaza and he had cramps from pushing himself too hard, but Connor was not going to let anything happen to his friend. Or HQ.

The totem pole had a human-friendly entrance by the side; it was rarely used as they usually zapped inside, but on this occasion Connor was thankful for its existence, pushing the door open and ascending up the stairs. "Greg?"

"I can't believe you! You monster!" The brunet heard the blond's voice coming from the central room.

"Fool! You should never have trusted me."

"Noooo!"

Filled with determination Connor rushed in. "Greg!"

Greg and Night Ninja were standing with their backs turned to him, using the Picture Player and playing some competitive adventure game. Connor's mouth dropped open in shock and disbelief.

"Aw man. My entire party's dead." Greg moaned.

"I save the princess. I win. You know what that means, right?" Night Ninja grabbed Greg's butt and gave it a squeeze. "You're gonna feel sore for a week."

"Alright." Greg pretended to fumble with his jeans.

Connr made a face and quickly absconded. Greg and Night Ninja waited for a second before bursting out laughing.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, I should state that I always presumed the show takes place in France.

"So it just occurred to me," Greg said, "Why don't we visit Japan?"

"How so?" asked Amaya.

"Night Ninja knows a teleport trick."

Greg, Amaya, Connor, and Night Ninja were in Greg's house putting on the final finishing touches on their poster.

"So, you want to visit Japan to get first-hand experience on the country."

"Yeah."

Night Ninja shook his head. "Unfortunately, you can't teleport to a location you've never been."

"Aw."

"Can't you fly the HQ over there instead?"

"No can do. It'll take hours, and besides, landing a giant totem pole in the middle of Tokyo is probably going to attract attention." Said Amaya.

"Bummer." Greg flicked some dust off his shorts idly. “I’d love to visit Japan. Heck, I’d love to visit _anywhere_.”

“Have you never travelled?”

Greg shook his head. “My parents aren’t absent because they’re invisible, you know. They’re too busy to bring me anywhere. The furthest I’ve been was the woods around the city. Or I guess the moon, but I’m not counting that.”

“Hmm.” Night Ninja was thoughtful. “You know, I could take you on a trip to Paris.”

“Really? How?”

“Simple. We take the bus, then we spend a few hours in the City of Light, then we just ninja vanish back here.”

“Are they going to allow two 15 year olds to get on a cross-country bus?”

Connor, Amaya, and Night Ninja looked back at him incredulously. “It’s _Europe_.”

* * *

“Two tickets to Paris, please.” Night Ninja handed the lady at the counter a 20 Euro bill, who checked it wasn’t counterfeit with a marker before tapping away at the computer.

“Bit late for a journey, you two.”

“Oh, we live there. We’ve been visiting relatives.”

The lady shrugged and handed them their tickets, along with the change. “Next!”

“I can’t believe I’m actually going on a trip.” Greg couldn’t keep the grin off his face. Remembering what happened two days ago, he took a look at his surroundings. “You don’t think Connor’s following us, do you?”

“Nah. Doubt he’ll want to do that again after that prank we pulled.”

Right now the two teens were dressed in normal T-shirts and shorts, but each of them were also wearing shoulder bags (Amaya warned them against backpacks – “Prone to getting pickpocketed”, she said) with their costumes inside. As soon as they arrived in Paris, they were going to change into their night-time hero/villain alter egos and explore the city from the rooftops – not only could they get around more quickly, it was also much safer.

The bus station wasn’t too big; there was only really two routes that passed through Tarabiscoville, one going north and one going south. Night Ninja led Greg to the one that headed towards Paris.

The bus soon arrived and Night Ninja gave the driver their tickets before finding a seat. Since it was past evening, the bus was deserted and they were the only two passengers. Greg picked a window seat and eagerly looked out while his companion sat next to him, the bus’ engine rumbling as it sped off.

“How long is this going to take?”

“About 45 minutes, if everything goes smoothly.”

2 hours later, the two got off the bus at Gallieni, slightly carsick and stir-crazy.

“Lousy traffic jam.”

“Why is public transport never on time here?”

The two of them ducked into a public toilet to change, Gekko then scaling up the exterior wall while Night Ninja clambered up using loose bricks as hand and footholds.

“Wow…” Gekko marvelled at the nightscape of Paris, Night Ninja standing beside him.

“Quite something, huh?”

The two of them leaped across the rooftops to see the first famous landmark of Paris – the Louvre. It was well past opening hours, but that was actually to their benefit as they could explore the museum without worrying about blowing their identity, dropping down from an opening in the glass pyramid.

“Gorgeous.” Greg was tempted to take a photo, but it was just a bit too dark with the sun down and lights off.

“I’ve never been somebody who appreciates art.”

"No?"

"If I did, I would've stolen all of these."

A short(ish) walk from the Louvre was the Champs-Élysées. Unlike the Louvre, the bustling street was much less interesting when it was mostly deserted, so the duo quickly moved on to the Arc de Triomphe, walking up the stairs to the top of the monument.

“Paris has a lovely skyline.”

“You’ll get an even better view once we climb the Eiffel Tower.” Night Ninja pointed; from their vantage point the A-shaped tower was easily recognisable in the distance. Greg nodded and together they ran along the rooftops again to the 7th Arrondissement and the Champ des Mars, coming up to the bottom of the massive steel structure.

“It’s so much bigger than I expected.”

“Pictures don’t really do it justice.” Night Ninja pointed at one of the beams. "Let's climb up, huh?"

"Shame we can't take the elevator."

The two teens climbed up the side, reaching the observation deck at the top where they took one final look at Paris.

“Night Ninja, what are we?” asked Greg.

“What do you mean?”

“Are we still enemies? Friends?”

“Both, I guess?” Night Ninja took a penny out and tossed it over the side, watching as it tumbled out of view. “It doesn't have to be one or the other. We’re certainly not the first couple that are rivals only when working.”

Greg sighed. “We have such a complicated relationship.”

“Life is complicated. You just have to learn to live and adapt.”

“You are very philosophical.”

“The Japanese are-”

“Not now!” Greg punched the Ninja in the shoulder playfully. “I can’t convince you to quit being a villain, right?”

“Not happening. Already told you being a legendary ninja is my dream.”

“Not even if I agreed to become your boyfriend?”

“Sorry, Greg. I like you a lot, but not enough to do that. I can't convince you to quit being a hero and thwarting my plans, either. And I'm not going to try, because I know you'd never go for it."

"Fair point."

Taking out his phone, the Ninja asked, “You want to take a picture before we leave?"

Greg nodded and stood next to the teen, smiling and holding a thumbs up.

"Say cheese."

"Cheese!"


End file.
